It is known in the art to apply coatings for various purposes to vitreous articles such as glass bottles or the like. These coating materials in many cases are applied to the newly-formed bottle soon after the bottle is removed from the forming machine. The coating material reacts with the surface of the glass, providing increased strength, durability, and resistance to scratches and abrasions due to handling and the like. The nature and composition of such coating materials are well-known to those skilled in the art.
The foregoing coating process typically takes place as the bottles are moving along a conveyor from a bottle forming machine, as the coating process typically takes place as the bottles are conveyed through a coating hood. Within the coating hood the bottles are subjected to the appropriate coating fluid, which may be in gaseous form, from nozzles or other applicators. The hood is vented to remove excess coating fluid and possible reaction products. The coated bottles exit the hood on the conveyor belt, and move to the next production stage such as an annealing lehr.
Although various coating hoods for vitreous articles are known to the prior art, one such hood includes one or more pairs of fluid dispensing manifolds within the hood. The manifolds making up each pair are positioned across from each other on opposite sides of the conveyor so as to apply coating fluid to both sides of the articles passing between the manifolds, and the manifolds are equipped with nozzles to direct a flow of coating fluid toward the bottles or other vitreous articles passing through the hood on the conveyor.
It has been learned that a zone or region of stagnant flow of the coating fluid from the manifold nozzles occurs with such prior art coating hoods. This stagnation zone occurs along the path of bottle travel within the hood, and bottles passing through the stagnation zone tend to be coated with less than desirable uniformity.